The invention relates to a system and method for the delivery of digital data to a display device. More particularly, the invention is a system and method in which digital data may be transmitted to a user terminal and formatted on a real-time basis so that it may be properly displayed regardless of the size, screen type, processor or browser employed.
With the explosion in Internet access and usage individuals have discovered that they may now receive a large amount of information in their homes and offices almost immediately from any number of sources. These sources include everything from the latest news, weather, and sports to stocks, bond and commodity prices. Further, goods and services may be purchased through an enormous number of Internet based web sites. Currently, a typical Internet user would have a browser installed in his local computer or server such as Internet Explorer(trademark) or Netscape(trademark). Using this browser, the user would access an Internet service provider, such as America-On-Line (AOL(trademark)), via a modem over the local public switched telephone network (PSTN). Once logged onto the Internet server, the user may utilize one of the many search engines, such as Yahoo(trademark) or Lycos(trademark), to specify search terms. The user may also use a web crawler, spider or robot to attempt to find a product, service or information desired. The search engine or web crawler would then respond with a list of web sites which matched the search terms the user provided. The user would then log onto a web site and view the products or services available for sale or receive the information desired. Further, if the user discovers a web site he prefers, the user may store the universal resource locator (URL) in a favorites"" directory for later quick access. Finally, due partly to the availability of the Internet, day trading has become very popular. Day traders will often sit in front of a monitor and watch as trades in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and options occur on the major markets. These day traders will often make numerous purchases and sales in a given day. However, the ability to monitor the trading on a major market such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is often difficult for the average user since it entails monitoring trading occurring in hundreds of stocks simultaneously. The volume of information that would have to be received would easily exceed the capability of a 56K modem. Further, most web sites on the Internet format their web pages under the assumption that the user terminal screen is of a certain minimum size, such as a twelve to fifteen diagonal inches or larger.
However, most recently Internet user""s have been accessing Internet web sites using lap-top computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), and palm computers having an internal or an external modem connected to the local PSTN or via a cellular telephone. These lap-top, PDA and palm computers have screen sizes significantly smaller than those found on the typical personal computer and the Internet web site must create a significantly different web page to accommodate these smaller screen sizes. Further, cellular telephones have been developed with Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) capability which allows the user to directly access the Internet without the need for a processor based system such as a lap top, PDA or palm computer. However, the screen size of a WAP or HTML capable phone is even further limited, and is often unable to access a typical Internet web site and is often only used to access a user""s e-mail. In order for the typical WAP or HTML capable phone to access a web page the web server must generate a screen specifically for that WAP or HTML cellular phone screen size and type. Thus, the tremendous volume of information that is present on the Internet is often not available to the owner""s of a WAP or HTML capable cellular telephone or other devices which have relatively small screen sizes. Further, not only does the size and resolution of the screen vary from one device to another, but also the video capability of the device. In some cases only a simple black and white display is used while in others full 16-bit color is available. Still further, even when using a typical personal computer (PC), many applications found over the Internet are limited to interfacing to specific browsers or versions of a browser such as Internet Explorer(trademark) 5.0. Therefore, these browser specific applications would not interface well with other browsers and not interface at all with a typical mobile communications device such as a WAP capable telephone.
A solution has been proposed by Caj Sxc3x6dergxc3xa5rd et al. in a conference paper presented at The Eighth International World Wide Web Conference, held in Toronto, Canada between May 11-14, 1999 entitled xe2x80x9cIntegrated multimedia publishing: combining TV and newspaper content on personal channelsxe2x80x9d, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. In this paper an Integrated publishing in Multimedia Network (IMU) was presented which would download a portion of Java script to the browser window to determine the window size in pixels. Thereafter, applets are created at the correct size for the screen employed by the user and would be transmitted to the user.
However, in addition to the problems created by the varying size of the screen and display capability being used and the different browsers being employed by users, it should be noted that the input or response mechanism is radically different in a PC versus a palm computer versus a WAP or HTML capable telephone. In the case of a PC, both a keyboard and a mouse are typically available. However, a palm computer or PDA usually only has a pen that may be used for input. In the case of a WAP capable telephone only a keypad and perhaps arrow keys are supplied due to the limited space. Thus, for a web site to be able to attract all potential customers it would need to adapt to screens of different sizes, resolutions, browsers and input methods. No known hardware or software allows for a web site to provide this capability.
Further, in addition to user devices screens of different sizes and resolutions, these screens vary in their video capabilities and color resolution, or lack thereof. Again, in order for a web site to attract the largest number of potential users it must also deal with user devices that may not have video capability and color as well as those that do. Again, no known hardware or software allows a web site to handle such a wide variation in screens and input mechanisms.
Therefore, what is needed are a system and method in which a web site or some other intermediate server may identify the size and type of screen the web page will be displayed on and adjust or paginate the web page so that the web site may still be accessed and viewed regardless of the device being used. Further, this pagination system and method, when using an intermediate server, should be able to operate with almost any web site so that the operator of the web site would not need to generate and maintain different web pages for different devices and screen types a user may have. In addition to being terminal independent, this system and method should be browser independent so that the user may use any browser available on the market. Still further, this pagination system and method must be able to operate in such a fashion that no or little information is lost or sacrificed when the information is viewed on a relatively small screen size. Finally, this method and system should further be able to adapt to the differing input devices to allow for maximum utilization of the terminal the user has.
An embodiment of the present invention provides for a method of information pagination in order to display the information on a user terminal screen. This method identifies a user terminal type and screen size upon logon of a user terminal. It then extracts layout rules and typographical settings from a database based on the user terminal type. Thereafter, the method calculates the space required to display an element of a plurality of elements of a page of information on the user terminal screen. It then determines if the space required to display the element is available on the user terminal screen. Resizing of the element is done when the determination is made that there is not adequate space on the user terminal screen to display the element. The element is then displayed, according to the layout rules and typographical settings, on the user terminal screen.
Further, an embodiment of the present invention creates a system and computer program for information pagination in order to display information on a user terminal screen. This system and computer program has a database to store information to display on the user terminal screen and to store a terminal profile for a plurality of user terminals. The system and computer program also has a client connection handler to communicate to a user terminal and retrieve information from the database and transmit the information to the user terminal for display on the user terminal screen. Further, the system and computer program also has a pagination engine to determine, based on the terminal profile, if each element contained in the information retrieved from the database will fit in available space on the user terminal screen. The pagination engine then resizes the element so that the element will fit into the space available on the user terminal screen when it is determined that the element will not fit in the space available on the user terminal screen.
These and other features of this device, method and computer program will become more apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, examples in accordance with the present invention.